Actually, "The Rise" is just getting started

While reading this recent BSNBuffs column, by editor Jake Shapiro, I found myself in the unfamiliar and uncomfortable position of thinking, “Damn, that’s a pretty cynical headline…a pretty cynical sentence…a pretty cynical paragraph.”

Yeah, me, calling someone else cynical when it comes to Mike MacIntyre and the Colorado Buffaloes. Pot meet kettle, and all that.

But here I am nonetheless, writing a response to a former colleague of mine on the very same platform, trying to calm the torch and pitchfork crowd while also making something very, very clear that I think Mr. Shapiro’s piece missed—crucially, even.

The Rise, one of the more brilliant branding terms I’ve seen in college sports, was not about last season. It wasn’t about who was coaching which position or unit, who had yet to take the money and run, who had yet to hear their name called by Roger Goodell during the NFL Draft, or who would play their final game in San Antonio. Winning those ten games, making the Pac-12 title game, and being selected to play in Alamo Bowl were just footnotes, reference points for us all to look back on and remember it for what it was, a magical season. Those accomplishments, however, were not The Rise.

To understand what it was, I think back to my first interview with Darrin Chiaverini before last season when I asked him point blank.

“It was something that I believed in as a player, seeing the first rise with coach McCartney, winning Big 8 championships and winning national championships. I feel, and I think our staff feels, that it’s time for the second rise of the Colorado football program,” he told me then.

If we’re to believe the creator of the whole idea, which I think would be wise, then telling someone “Don’t Expect The Rise to Continue” feels a lot like missing the forest for the trees. Unless we’re thinking that a six, seven, or eight win season would wipe out the talent in Boulder, strip these coaches of their charisma and skill, or tear down the walls of the Champions Center, then The Rise continues onward, regardless of any perceived linear obligations.

Last season was the most fun I’ve ever had watching football and yes, admittedly, there were plenty of instances where a favorable bounce of the ball helped propel the Buffs towards their final record. Yes, I would be a fool to expect so many things to go right this season and to benefit from the intense drama that we all unfold in 2016. But, like, that doesn’t really matter. Sure, seven wins isn’t ten. But, again, that doesn’t really matter. MacIntyre himself said that, in his mind, the program arrived a year early. They weren’t supposed to do that last year. They were supposed to go 6-6 or 7-5, allowing the fan base to finally exhale and enjoy some good ol’ late December football. The script would move on to now, where everyone would be talking about whether or not Steven Montez could take over the reigns and grow the offense further. It was supposed to be a process.

Instead, Sefo Liufau and company went all Captain America on the Pac-12 and nut punched just about everyone who stepped in their way when healthy. It was unreal, some of the most sensational sport we’ve been privileged enough to watch.

The differences that do exist between that team and this one, the questions that are completely fair to ask and the criticisms that are quite valid, are real. But, again, they don’t really matter, do they?

Because this year isn’t just about what leadership was lost or what kind of lame ass soda the coaches are drinking or the let-downs suffered at the end of last season when it appeared, the comic book hero movie’s credits rolled too early. It’s all about who is next, who is next to lift up the program.

As much as I enjoyed 2016, I’m going to enjoy 2017 for having the chance to watch Phillip Lindsay smoke opposing defenses, Jeromy Irwin make his case for the NFL, the Blackout Boyz do what it is they do, CU fans be the fun loving a-holes that we are when the program is back, MacIntyre probably cussing out an assistant mid-game…all that and more. And I’m going to enjoy it because of The Rise.

Because The Rise ain’t over.